Why are train games so disappointing?

[Nutmeg]

Openttd mixes economy and design: https://www.openttd.org/

Economy is completely secondary in OpenTTD.

Airports are basically a legitimized infinite money cheat.

 

[Thorgeim]

Well, Transport Tycoon Deluxe was the game that scratched that itched for me back in the day and I've been long looking for something along these lines, but with more eyecandy.
Not sure if that's what you're looking for for, but the closest I came is this little thing:


Edit: is media embedding fug'd? Here's a direct link just in case:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/598960/Mashinky/

Yep, looks like it's fug'd.

It's basically a one-man project, still in early access (yeah, that's two red flags right there), but contrary to expectations, this guy actually seems to know what he's doing
and while the feature rollout isn't the fastest, it seems to be progressing steadily at its own pace. It plays pretty much like TTD but is quite purdy once you swith to the all bells and whistles 3D mode.

You can also toggle a simplified 2D view, which is useful when you want to place stuff efficiently:

Like I said, the head dev really looks like he knows what he's doing.

It's still EA, so the gameplay isn't yet finished, can be a bit barebones (or used to be, back when I checked), but is entirely sufficient. You find two places that need connecting and types of goods that need to be hauled and it's entirely up to you to make it happen.
As you haul goods, you earn tokens which can be used for progression, various upgrades, unlocks etc. The towns will grow based on the cargo you deliver. You will also get a random task from time to time.
There's no pressure to make it all hyper-efficient, unless you want to unlock something really quickly, you can spend your time designing a scenic route, hop on the train and pull the line to make it go choo choo.

This is a cool "little" game actually. There is 1 thing i miss though and thats passangers/civilians around towns, its OK when you cant zoom in as much like TTD. But here you can get a good view of the platforms and seeing them so empty makes it look odd.

 

[Fluent]

well, i haven't seen it mentioned yet, so i'll add one to the list. A-Train. Yes, the ancient A-Train. I remember having a ton of fun with it as a kid. Also, there is A-Train 8, which i own and I guess is a more modern version of it. Haven't tried it yet. But the ancient one, yeah, lots of fun.

 

[laclongquan]

Train simulations seem to think I want to be the owner of a train company and focus too much on economic development, or think I want to play a puzzle game with tracks. I don't want either of those! What I would really like is a digital model train city - laying out the tracks, possibly building a town around it.

Does anything like that worth playing exist?

You sound like you want a Sim City type (or VR type) of game built around train. That should be impossible to exist, yet. The demand sounds too niche for big studio. Maybe one or two-man team of enthusiasts can do this for you.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Some really bizarre answers in this thread.